HELLOW? HELLOW? HELLOW?! HELLOW!!! HEE…LLL…OOO!!!!!! *#@%$ What? Huhh?! AAHYYAA… I can’t hear you clearly… You are breaking up … ding dong…line goes dead. You dial back and that lady stylishly says the guy who had just rung you up is outside communication range. Dial again and promptly “call ended” appears on your mobile phone screen without even getting a connection. Sound familiar?
Who are we talking about?...You got it…BSNL of course! This is a frustrating routine being experienced on a daily basis by all who are condemned to BSNL server. The most unpalatable and unpleasant part is the very prompt efficient service you receive when it comes to their billing… Their SMS message lovingly says “Dear customer your bill for the month …is Rs./- pay before...” If you are not equally prompt in paying up, you are efficiently disconnected.
Nagas are a gullible race easily taken for a free ride through the rural pothole roads without a word of complaint. We are paying up with a plastered smile on our faces for all the disjointed conversation that can never be completed with one call. Consider this… each customer of BSNL is paying an average bill of Rs. 650/- to Rs.700/- and more per month. With over a couple of lakh subscribers paying this bill across the State they are raking in crores per month without an effort to upgrade or giving any decent service. In plain simple terms the BSNL is committing a broad daylight robbery. More and more subscribers are being added each day knowing full well that their server is unable to take the load. All they are concerned with is the income they are raking in with effortless ease without raising a figure to improve their service.
We have a user Government that seems oblivious to this fact. Rather than take BSNL to task, the well to do Officials of the Govt. solve this inconvenience by purchasing two three mobile phones and subscribe to other servers like vodaphone, airtell, aircell, cellone, celltwo, cell three, Idea, No idea and so on… not that those other servers are any better. The rest who can ill afford to buy even one ordinary phone has to suffer the consequence of indifferent service being rendered by the BSNL. Wake up people up there and make BSNL and all the rest of the scoundrels in communication business accountable for everyone’s sake! This has become insufferable. It is time to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH!
BSNL and all other network servers should know that there is a limit to everything. Even if the Govt. of Nagaland shows sign of impotency, you may be dragged into Court or worse still, face the wrath of the subscribers who may not hesitate to have a physical discussion in the good old traditional Naga way… and there are only 100 beds in the Civil Hospital in Kohima.
Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd)
